The present invention relates to an offshore structure, particularly one adapted to offshore oil production.
The typical conventional structure for developing offshore oil fields is a jacket (open steel-pipe/framework) on which production equipment is installed and which is connected to the onshore station via an underwater pipeline. But because of the high cost of pipeline construction, such a conventional exploitation system becomes too expensive when used in small and medium (marginal) offshore oil fields. Developing small and medium oil fields may require: (1) the system is of "gravitational type" that substantially eliminates the need for driving piles into the sea bed; (2) the system is virtually free from fixing up equipment at site; and (3) the system obviates the need for laying down a long pipeline.